September 2023 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

PipneyJane said:

joedenise said:

Nabbed a TGTG bag from Morrisons £3.09.  Got 2 x 4 jacket potatoes (that's OK they'll get used), 2 bags of carrots (roasted a couple to have with dinner), will make some soup and have also par boiled and sprayed with oil before open freezing overnight and they are now in the freezer ready for when we want frozen carrots again, 6 apples, 4 pears, a baguette (DH had some toasted last night but the rest will be binned as it was already stale when we collected it); small tin loaf which DH will eat toasted.  So not the best bag we've ever had but at least there was some usable food which will save a few pennies.

Need to plan in some jackets this week to use up a few of them!

What about turning the baguette into breadcrumbs?  Simply whiz in the food processor for a few moments, tip into your largest freezer bag and freeze as flat as possible.  Every half an hour today, take the bag out of the freezer and break up the lumps, so that you can use whatever quantity is needed in your recipe(s).  Tomorrow, decant into a container and return to the freezer.

- Pip

I find if you whizz the bread into crumbs and then spread them out on a baking tray and put them into a warmish oven until they're all nice and crispy then you can put them straight into a plastic box in the freezer and they stay separate from one another. Then I just scoop or shake out the amount I need. 
You have to take the tray out of the oven and give them a stir once or twice while they're crisping up and don't let them get more than slightly browned or they can't be used for coating things you want to fry.

Blackcats

Another Lidl shop to declare plus HRH The Cat's dry food and a spend at the butchers.
we bought good quality stewing steak from the butcher and made a slow cooker beef madras - ate 2 portions and 2x2 portions in the freezer.
won't need to shop again until Friday.

£122 remaining 

joedenise

Bought some meat at butchers which comes from the bulk fund but that took this pot overspent so have moved £50 from Groceries to cover the overspend this month and reducing groceries to £200.  This is OK as general grocery spends have been fairly low this month due to using up freezer home made ready meals.  The current spend is £58.67/£200 leaving £141.33 for the rest of the month.

Meal plan done to end of month and again most will be coming from the freezer so should be plenty to last.

lilly81

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted!
So the pre op assessment went well, I decided to buy a treat but when I saw the prices in WH Smiths I changed my mind 😱😂
Amazon prime took £95 out for membership but I then cancelled. Might just pay monthly from October until December which are my family's main birthday months. I'm 1 of 5 and 4 of us have Nov/Dec birthdays 🎂
I have 2 food collections for the community fridge tomorrow and again on Friday. I'm working at the fridge session on Saturday but then I'm having my op so no volunteering for 6 weeks.
Food budget currently stands at £169.87/£264

goldfinches

@lilly81 - glad to hear your pre-op assessment went well and interesting that WH Smiths is so expensive nowadays. I only ever pop in there when they're selling off wrapping paper and Christmas bits in January so shall keep on avoiding our local branch the rest of the year.
You might find they try to offer you a free month of Prime now you've cancelled, I sometimes get that offered when I go to pay and I just put a reminder of when to cancel in my calendar so it doesn't automatically roll over into an annual subscription.

I needed overripe bananas for a baking recipe this afternoon so went to Sains and spent £1.35 and also succumbed to the temptation of a punnet of strawberries for £1.95.

My new total is £144.93/£120 and my average daily spend is £7.62.
The Baking Budget new figure is £14.24/£20.

I made this Nigella recipe for Chocolate Tahini Banana Bread and used the vegan version which has just come out of the oven and smells delicious. Here it is.

JingsMyBucket

@lilly81 if your cash flow can handle it, you can keep the Prime then cancel it end of December. They will then refund you the difference. It will work out cheaper that way that going monthly for the next 3–4 months. HTH. 

elsiepac

October GC Now Live!

thriftwizard

I've had to do the bakery & supermarket element of my weekly shop a day earlier, for "operational reasons" i.e. operating the parental taxi service, as well as going down west to visit my mother, over the next few days. So I have a whisker less than £40 to do the butchers & market shop on Friday, unless I get back before the butchers close tomorrow. I do have A Plan but it's going to be tight... that said, DS3 is off to his next posting on Monday, and DD1 & BF are away for the weekend, so numbers are down a bit & supplies should last a little longer.  

I think I'm going to have to tighten the screws a bit; OH is making noises about dropping his hours a bit - and fair enough, he's 65 and has worked continuously since he was 18 - and I doubt I can ratchet up my earnings very far in the current economic climate, no matter how eco-friendly & economical my wares. But we still have 2 offspring at home more or less full time, one BF here half the time, and one more back for university holidays, not to mention frequent visits from the two who have left home and other family members. We don't charge them rent (though that may have to change!) as we'd rather they were saving, hopefully for homes of their own, though at present that idea seems like pie in the sky. But that doesn't give us much chance to save... I know we're far better off than most; no mortgage, no offspring still at home with offspring of their own, always someone to do things with, even the chance for free "holidays" house & pet sitting for one of the offspring who has managed to break free & lives somewhere spectacular, but we'd hoped to "downsize" (ok, smaller house, bigger garden) by now and maybe travel a bit while we're still young enough. Ah well; first world problems, time to stop whingeing!

GreenFairy

Where has September gone?!? Hope everyone is keeping well.
I'm sneaking in right at the end - my running total is €458.65 so far, and my final August total which I've just totted up is just bonkers.   

We've got a house full of bloomin' covid, so we've been hiding indoors this week, having plenty of simple meals out of the freezer - no one has a big appetite right now. Despite the mental fog I've managed not to have too much food hitting the bin. 

Can't believe all the Christmas choccies are out in the shops, but I took advantage of all the back to school cereal offers. Large box of crunchy nut for €2.50? Yes please! They're €6 full price now *faints*

Payday is the very last day of the month for myself and OH this month, so absolutely trying to buy nothing but perishables now. It's our house-iversary month, so all the big annual bills like house insurance, bin charges etc roll in, plus eldest bubs birthday. 

lilly81

For lunch I batch cooked lasagna.
For dinner I batch cooked carrot and coriander soup using carrots, onions and baguette from the community fridge so only cost me the corriander. My son is having mini doughnuts from the community fridge for pudding.
I have done a top up shop today but need to go to the Tesco Extra in the next town tomorrow to get my gluten free cereal.
I've ordered some second hand uniform from the online PTA shop, 2 pairs of school shorts, 1 pair trousers and a jumper for £1.70!
Mentioned this to a friend and she said I could have 2 more pairs of school shorts from her son.